Genshin Impact: Why Elemental Mastery Will Be Stronger Than Critical Builds


Mihoyo has recently buffed the Elemental Mastery stat in the update 1.6 of Genshin Impact. Players have been checking how it’s faring and the buff is substantial enough to rival the current Critical meta. Here’s why Elemental Mastery will be stronger than Critical builds in the long run.

Elemental Reactions And Swirls

As a stat, Elemental Mastery boosts the damage of elemental reactions and Anemo Swirls of characters that have a high stat of it. Previously, increasing this stat as the character’s main build was scoffed at due to the diminishing returns of this stat. Before update 1.6, a high Elemental Mastery would not immediately translate as the elemental reaction.

However, the update 1.6 buff to the stat reduces the diminishing returns on stacking Elemental Mastery and allow its builds to grow reaction and Swirl damage exponentially. As of now, many players are finding that Sucrose with a high enough Elemental Mastery and a Swirl allows her to clear mobs of foes.

Currently, Elemental Mastery could be a viable stat to increase to boost damage output and even be better than most Attack and Critical builds.

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High, Sustained Damage Source

As of now, most damage dealers often balance their bonus stats to add up their Attack, Critical Rate, and Critical Damage. Focusing on this build exponentially increases their damage but can be inconsistent depending on how low their Critical Rate stat is.

Moreover, players value finding temporary buffs that boost Attack and Critical stats to further increase their damage. So far, this character build path is the consistent way of making a strong party carry that can function independently even if their party members are down.

While the Elemental Mastery stat has potential, it has yet to surpass the current Critical-focused meta.

Kazuha Is The Key

Potentially, the upcoming Anemo character in update 1.6 could be the main carry for Elemental Mastery builds. According to leaks, Kazuha’s stat growth will be Elemental Mastery per ascensions which allows him to reach high stats for it. With enough Elemental Mastery artifacts and using the Viridescent Venerer set, he has potential to reach a high damage more than Sucrose can reach.

For now, we’ll have to wait until Kazuha’s release to see if the Elemental Mastery stat can surpass the current builds and even be the main stat to build for carries moving forward.

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